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Groundskeeper Willie
|status= |hair=Red, balding |age=66 |job=Groundskeeper and Janitor at Springfield Elementary School |relatives='Parents:' Mr. and Mrs. MacDougal Brother: Angus MacDougal Cousin: Billy MacDougal Ex-girlfriend: Patty Bouvier Ex-fiancée: Shary Bobbins Imaginary Lover: Unnamed Girlfriend: Inga |appearance="Principal Charming" |voiced by=Dan Castellaneta }}Dr. William "Willie" MacDougal III, also known as G.K. Willington Esquire, and William MacMoran is the groundskeeper and janitor of Springfield Elementary School who's originally from Scotland. Willie's job is to supervise the children of the School during recess, and clean the halls. He is recognizable with his red hair and thick Scottish accent. He is often either a formidable enemy or an invaluable ally to Bart and Lisa Simpson; mostly, he has a strained relationship with Principal Seymour Skinner. Willie's either originally from the Scottish city of Kirkwall or a place called North Kilttown. He is 66 years old. Biography Willie is the groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School and is a stereotypical angry Scotsman with a heavy Scottish accent. He worked in the same amount of years as Principal Skinner. He was originally hired at Springfield Elementary as "Swim Teacher Willie." Unfortunately, after Skinner was trapped in the worm-filled pool for three days, he had the pool destroyed, and made Willie a groundskeeper. During weekends and vacations, he also tends the golfing greens at the Springfield Glen Country Club, giving himself the appropriate name Greens''keeper Willie. He has claimed to originate from several different places in Scotland, and frequently gives contradictory accounts of his past life before arriving in Springfield. Willie once told a story of working at a mine that caved in, saying "No one made it out alive, not even Willie!" Also Willie once told Skinner that he had seen his own father hanged for stealing a pig although both of his parents can be seen alive in Scotland later. It is possible that Willie has a murderous past as we are told he is the spitting image of the Aberdeen strangler, an affirmation which he doesn't deny, innocently whistling by. However, it is likely he only kills unintentionally: he accidentally killed the boy who became the playground ghost of Springfield Elementary, all because of his sassy mouth. Willie is incompetent and is quick to anger for little or no reason. He has shown great animosity towards both Principal Skinner and Bart Simpson, the latter of whom is often more than willing to make Willie the butt of his jokes. Twice, Bart destroyed Willie's shack: the first out of revenge for taking his skateboard; the second accidentally. Superintendent Chalmers once said that he never yelled at Willie like he does at Skinner because he liked him. At one time, Skinner quit and Chalmers replaced him with Willie as both Principal and Groundskeeper, though he never increased his salary, much to the Scotsman's disappointment. Willie once discovered an oil well by accident because he was attempting to bury the school hamster. Because of the school's new wealth, he requested a crystal pail. However, after Mr. Burns stole the oil, which not only resulted in the loss of the school's newly gained fortune, but also causing the school to go into an even worse financial state than before due to the cost of dismantling the oil tower, Skinner was forced to lay off Groundskeeper Willie, in order to preserve the remaining school budget, causing Willie to wish to murder Mr. Burns and seriously injure Mr. Smithers. When interrogated by the police, he answers that he wasn't able to because of arthritis in both of his index fingers, preventing him from utilizing a pistol, which he got "from space invaders in 1977" and implying right after that he doesn't even know what a video game is, asking ignorantly "Video game?" and therefore pretending to have fought aliens for real. However, he fired a rifle at a weather balloon vandalized by Bart; it's as if handling a pistol and handling a rifle are two separate things to him. Later, he was seen shooting an empty pistol in the Springfield County Court House with pinpoint accuracy, indicating that his arthritis may have been fixed. He once had a cache of "screw you money", but he ended up losing it all, presumably due to Artie Ziff cheating out ZiffCorp's shareholders. Willie's hobbies include videotaping couples in cars, something which proves to the benefit of Homer Simpson when he is wrongfully accused of sexual harassment. At one time, Willie was engaged to Shary Bobbins until she recovered her eyesight—at which point, in Willie's words, "Suddenly the ugliest man in Glasgow wasn't good enough for her!" Willie was once given the job of teaching Bart Simpson. Lisa had taken a restraining order against Bart, so he couldn't legally go to the same school. Willie became Bart's teacher because, according to Principal Skinner, Willie's shack is the only place on the school grounds that "falls outside all laws of Man or God." He also took part in the Medieval Festival, but he disrupted it and Principal Skinner expelled Bart who had mistaken him as the one who disrupted it; Willie later explained to Skinner that ''he was the one who was disrupted the festival. Principal Skinner then realized his mistake and welcomed Bart back as an apology and was then scolded along with Willie by Superintendent Chalmers for expelling the wrong culprit. He also held a particular hatred for the holiday of Easter, which he implied was because of his Scottish ancestry. This hatred was such that he proceeded to sabotage a celebration of the holiday by rigging the various musical instruments with eggs, thus having the band unknowingly spray eggs at the audience when playing the instruments, and then framing Bart for it, which was serious enough to nearly get Bart expelled from school and worse. After he was exposed, it was implied that he lost his job as groundskeeper and spent a few years at the Penitentiary as a result (although oddly, he has his job back by the next episode). Willie's years of heavy work have given him amazing strength and a very muscular physique, which has been observed many times as he often tears his clothes off, before accomplishing hard tasks or because of outbursts of rage. For example, he rescues Bart from a marauding Alaskan timber wolf by wrestling it into submission. Much like Ned Flanders, though, his physique is unremarkable when he is clothed, and seemingly morphs as soon as he is partially nude. Apparently, he has had sexual attractions to Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York (more commonly known as "Fergie"), as he had mentioned while hallucinating as an after effect of Seth and Munchie's Peyote-laced juice (which was thanks to Homer) that he waited a long time for the moment where he could embrace Fergie passionately. Personality Willie is recognisable for his thick, angry Scottish accent and his shaggy mane of red hair and scruffy beard. Willie's fiery temper, drinking problem and dysfunctional stability in his own life make him unfit to be around, let alone take after children and the only reason that he seems to be able to keep his job is because Skinner and Chalmers pay him relatively nothing for his groundskeeping duties. It is implied that Willie has killed a student at least twice. When a ball was shredded underneath his tractor, he screams in horror that he ran over another child again. He claims to be haunted by the ghost of a deceased student when he confused Bart for him and after Bart left the scene, a young ghost actually did appear with a rake impaled through its chest (insinuating murder). Willie is homeless and lives in his utility shack on the school grounds which is heavily dilapidated (on one occasion he dreamt that he was in his shack when he was actually passed out drunk in a snowy field). His shack has been destroyed twice (both times because of Bart) when he overflowed it with macaroni and cheese out of revenge for Willie stealing his skateboard and the second time was accidentally demolished by a frozen dodgeball which was intended at his gym teacher. Despite its shabbiness, Willie is emotionally attached to his shack as he missed it greatly when he quit his job and became a waiter. Willie has a very bizarre way of speaking. His heavy accent makes most of his sentences sound nonsensical and complete gibberish. His writing sentences are also heavily accented to match how he speaks, implying he is also illiterate. Whenever Willie insults someone he goes into a long-drafted retort that is gruffly spoken such as "you cheese-eating, surrender monkeys" to a class of French students and "you nose-combing, hair-wipers" to Skinner and Chalmers. It's implied that Willie's speech pattern is a result of brain damage due to a constant concussion by hitting himself on the head with a hammer to get to sleep. Willie is a heavy drinker and is usually quite drunk on the job. In these instances he drives his tractor, swerving drunkenly and ploughing everything in his way, once crashing into the pool by accident. He claims to "get so drunk I can barely see, but it helps me get through another day". Despite this, Willie seems to have a passion for his job such as keeping the lost retainers that he finds from children and turning them into a sculpture. Even after Lisa gave him a better life as a waiter and with a presumably high pay raise Willie still missed his old job as a groundskeeper. Willie regularly fights animals such as an Alaskan timber wolf and a mule, with the intention of eating the latter after holding him down. However, he is quite fond of animals such as giving the timber wolf a drink from his own flask after being victorious, planning to rescue the turtles when the school fire alarm was pulled but was overpowered by them later on, reacting with joy when Santa's Little Helper noticed him through a window and giving a snake a home as a fire hose for the school when he was abandoned by Bart. Outside of his groundskeeping tendencies, Willie seems to work for Mayor Quimby and the town in general. Presumably due to his constant manual labour Willie is in excellent physique whenever he rips off his clothes and reveals he is actually very muscular which is odd as his clothes tend to give him a pot belly. Behind the Laughter Creation Groundskeeper Willie's first appearance was in the season two episode "Principal Charming". Originally, the character was just written as an angry janitor, and the fact that he was Scottish was added during a recording session. Dan Castellaneta was assigned to do the voice. Castellaneta didn't know what voice to use and Sam Simon, who was directing at the time, told Castellaneta to use an accent. He first tried using a Spanish voice, which Simon felt was too clichéd. He then tried a "big dumb Swede", which was also rejected. For his third try, he used the voice of an angry Scotsman, which was deemed appropriate enough and was used in the episode. Originally thought by the directors to be a one-shot appearance, Willie has since become a common recurring character. Matt Groening would later reveal that the character was based on Angus Crock, a kilt-wearing chef from the sketch comedy show Second City Television, who was portrayed by Dave Thomas. Development A recurring joke, which was first shown in "Radio Bart", is that Willie appears to have a pot belly, but whenever he takes off his shirt, he is quite muscular. One of Willie's trademarks is a gruffly-spoken insulting retort, which take the writers a long time to come up with, although they do not consider them that funny. Cultural influence and legacy Groundskeeper Willie's description of the French as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" from the episode "'Round Springfield" has become widely used, particularly in the run-up to the war in Iraq. The New York Post used the phrase "Surrender Monkeys" as the headline for its December 7, 2006 front page, referring to the Iraq Study Group and its recommendation that U.S. soldiers be withdrawn from Iraq by early 2008. The line was "most likely" written by Ken Keeler. The Times reported in late 2005 that "he is the most instantly recognizable Scot in the world: better known than Billy Connolly or Ewan McGregor, even Sean Connery." The same article quotes Simpsons creator Matt Groening as saying "We wanted to create a school janitor that was filled with rage, sort of our tribute to angry janitors all over the world". In 2006, Groundskeeper Willie would be named the fourth best peripheral character in the history of the show by IGN, who said "high-points for the character were being trained to be civilized, wrestling a wolf that was let loose in the school and becoming a substitute for the French language teacher - 'Bon jourrr! You cheese-eating surrender monkeys!'" IGN would also name "My Fair Laddy", the only episode which centers around Willie, the best episode of the seventeenth season. Jim Slotek of Sun Media would call Willie the ninth best Simpsons supporting character, and also made a Top Ten quotes list, which included Willie's quote "Och, back to the loch wi' you, Nessie." from "Selma's Choice". There have been some moments in the show where he has been known to imitate Montgomery Scott of Star Trek fame. Quotes Yokel Chords Principal Skinner: Willie. Go get those kids and bring them back! Groundskeeper Willie: I'll bring 'em back dead or alive! Principal Skinner: NOT dead. Groundskeeper Willie: Aww, ya never let Willie be Willie! Marge Gets a Job Groundskeeper Willie: wolf is attacking Bart Hey, Wolfie! Put down that hors d'oeurve, it's time fer tha main course! shares a flask of Scotch with the whipped wolf Groundskeeper Willie: Don't feel bad fer losin'. I was wrestling wolves when you were still suckling at yer mother's teat. Homer the Heretic Sunday, the church doors are frozen shut by the blizzard outside; as the congregation waits, Willie applies a blowtorch Reverend Lovejoy: How's it going, Willie? Groundskeeper Willie: Miracles are your department, Reverend! Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song Groundskeeper Willie: Lunchlady Doris, do you have any grease? Lunchlady Doris: Yes. Yes we do. Groundskeeper Willie: open his shirt Then grease me up woman!Doris:...Okie dokie. The Cartridge Family Groundskeeper Willie: Ach! They call this a soccer riot? Come on, boys, let's take 'em to school! Who Shot Mr. Burns?: Part Two Groundskeeper Willie: I'm tellin' ye. I could ne'er have shot Burns. ... It's impossible for me to fire a pistol. If you check me medical records, you'll see I have a crippling arthritis in me index fingers. up his fingers, which are misshapen LOOK AT 'EM! I got it from space invaders in 1977. Chief Wiggum: Oh yeah, that was a pretty addictive video game. Groundskeeper Willie: Video game? Radio Bart digging a mine shaft to rescue Bart from a well Apu: gasp The canary. Groundskeeper Willie: GAS. OUT OF THE HOLE. runs out yelling; above ground, Dr. Hibbert examines the canary Dr. Hibbert: Gentlemen, this canary died of natural causes. Groundskeeper Willie: BACK IN THE HOLE. runs back in, yelling Postcards from the Wedge Groundskeeper Willie: Hoisting a bag. Aye, there's no better feeling on Earth. The Color Yellow Groundskeeper Willie: Well done, boy! Bart Simpson: blowing up a tree stump Wait! Here comes the My Kia! Groundskeeper Willie: What's a "My Kia?" stump falls on Skinner's car. Principal Skinner: My Kia! Lisa the Vegetarian :Principal Skinner: Uh oh. Two independent thought alarms in one day. The students are overstimulated. Willie, remove all the colored chalk from the classrooms. :Groundskeeper Willie: I warned ya! Didn't I warn ya? That colored chalk was forged by Lucifer himself! Home Sweet Home-Diddily-Dum-Doodily watches as Willie burns Bart's lice-infested clothes Groundskeeper Willie: See you in hell, you wingless bloodsuckers! Principal Skinner: What kind of parents would permit such a lapse in scalpal hygiene? Groundskeeper Willie: Well, you better check out his sister. She could be rife with them bugs too! Moms I'd Like to Forget Groundskeeper Willie: You call that a scar? This is a scar! Nelson Muntz: That's a bellybutton. Everybody's got one. Groundskeeper Willie: sad I thought I was special. Bart's Girlfriend Groundskeeper Willie: about Scottish history and culture Now, the kilt was only for day-to-day wear. In battle, we donned a full-length ball gown covered in sequins. The idea was to blind your opponent with luxury. The Debarted Groundskeeper Willie: I have some information for you, but it's gonna be hard to hear. Bart Simpson: Why, because of your stupid accent? Groundskeeper Willie: Ach, nay! Because of its upsetting nature. Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life Lisa Simpson: down the hall at school Ugh. What's the point of getting rid of all the distractions at home if I have to do my learning here? into the library and opens a book, smiling because it's quiet Groundskeeper Willie: into the library, running a loudly whirring floor waxer. Sings Oh, I'll wax the upstairs and I'll wax the downstairs, and I'll get drunk in the library! Lisa Simpson: Annoyed Willie! Do you have to wax this floor now? Groundskeeper Willie: off waxer. Apologetically No, no. I can come back later. around to leave and slips on the waxed floor, landing with a loud crunch. He screams in pain Groundskeeper Willie: Aaah! Lisa Simpson: Concerned Oh! Should I get the nurse? Groundskeeper Willie: Nay, just keep studyin'. I'll scream this out. on the floor Groundskeeper Willie: Aaah! Oy! Aaaahh! Mypods and Boomsticks Bart Simpson: You're new here, so here's what you need to know: we call Principal Skinner "Principal Skin-rash", Professor Weiner is "Professor Whiner", and Groundskeeper Willie is Grounds-Creepier Stupid. Groundskeeper Willie: That's not even clever. There are so many aspects of my personality you can mock. I'm poor, I'm illiterate, I think movies are real. Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala-Annoyed-Grunt-cious Groundskeeper Willie: Shary Bobbins and I were engaged to be wed back in the old country. Then she got her eyesight back. Suddenly the ugliest man in Glasgow wasn't good enough for her. Shary Bobbins: It's good to see you, Willie. Groundskeeper Willie: angry That's not what you said the first time you saw me! Monty Can't Buy Me Love Mr. Burns: draining Lake Loch Ness, he sees something resembling it That's it! I see the monster! Groundskeeper Willie: all the water is drained Nay! That's merely a Loch Ness discarded Homecoming float. Homer: walk into the drained lake and Homer sees, STOMP ABERDEEN inscribed on it No way! Aberdeen rules! real Loch Ness Monster appears, crushes the float and roars, Mr. Burns, Homer, Groundskeeper Willie and Professor Frink all gasp. Homer looks at the Nessie like "Macarena Monster" doll, then looks at Nessie Homer: God, it's him! Mr. Burns: Come on boys, overpower it. Willie, Homer, and Professor Frink walk away, whistling Mr. Burns: Fine. I'll do it myself. off his coat and tie and rolls up his sleeves, the next thing you know, Nessie is being held in a net under the helicopter Groundskeeper Willie: the helicopter That was amazing, Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns: I was most worried when he swallowed me, but then, well, you know the rest. And now for my triumphant return to Springfield! The Joy of Sect Groundskeeper Willie: Bart and Lisa are tied up in a dark room with only a small dim light on Oh, you're gonna break like matchsticks, I promise you that. Ned Flanders: through the door, turns on the big light Hey, I made some Rice Krispies Squares for our hungry deprogram-erinos. Groundskeeper Willie: Oh, man! You ruined the atmosphere, you daft pansy! Ned Flanders: Well, this is my rumpus room. Groundskeeper Willie: Don't call it that! Trivia *In the Simpsons Comics, it is implied his last name is MacMoran. However, in "My Fair Laddy", he claims he does not have a last name. In another episode, he gives his name as "Dr. William MacDougal" to a customs official at Ellis Island. *Willie thinks movies and video games are real, such as an incident in 1977 when he thought he was saving the world from a real alien invasion by playing Space Invaders. *Willie lives in a shack behind the Elementary School. *Willie uses Propecia, a drug for male pattern baldness, to keep his chest hairy. *In The Simpsons: Tapped out Principal Skinner says Willie gets paid more than him. *Willie was implied to have a sociopathic hatred of the town, as when he was running for mayor during Do What You Feel Day, claimed in a stump speech that, as soon as he was made mayor, he will kill all of the citizens and then burn the entire town to the ground, and mentioning that he is fully aware that the microphone was on. *In "Bart-Mangled Banner", Willie claims to have been deaf all along since the Boiler Explosion of 1988, saying that any time he is seen replying to someone, he is simply reading their lips. He spends the rest of the episode misunderstanding most everyone who speaks to him despite the fact that Willie has never been shown having this problem before or since. This is disproved in "Grade School Confidential", where he says he can hear Seymour Skinner talking through a megaphone on the school roof, despite facing away from him. *In the Italian version of the show, Willie is known for speaking with a strong Sardinian accent, as well as occasionally referencing to allegedly hailing from Sardinia instead of Scotland. *It is generally regarded that the character's name is spelled "Willie" but his tractor has his name spelled as "Willy" on the side. *He framed Bart twice. The first time he disrupted the Medievel Festival which Principal Skinner mistakenly blames Bart and expels him but he was welcomed as an apology and he and Groundskeeper Willie are then suspended for blaming him. The second he disrupts the Easter and he is then fired. *Despite being a well known Character Willie dosen't have a role in The story of The Simpsons Hit & Run. *In Stark Raving Dad, he appears black and has a white beard and white eyebrows. *In Orange is the New Yellow, it was revealed Willie coaches . Appearances Note: Bold letters are for Willie-centered episodes or new relevant details about the character in an episode. Regular parenthesis indicate nonspeaking appearances or pictures. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 's show)}} * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * (statue (deceased)) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * (Pre-Show) }} Category:Recurring characters Category:Springfield Elementary School faculty Category:Stonecutters Category:Immigrants Category:Male characters Category:Adults Category:British Characters Category:Citizens of Springfield Category:Major characters Category:Tapped Out Characters Category:Characters known by nickname Category:People that hate their job Category:Main Characters Category:Season 2 first appearances Category:MacDougal family Category:Springfield Category:Springfield Elementary School Category:Musicians Category:Bart Simpson's friends Category:Lisa Simpson's friends Category:Ginger haired Characters Category:European Characters Category:Scottish characters Category:The Simpsons Wrestling Category:Prisoners Category:Attempted Killers Category:Muscular Characters Category:Stubs Category:Christians Category:Bart's Enemies Category:Michael Jackson Fans Category:Milhouse Van Houten's Friends Category:Das Bus survivors Category:Characters with Facial Hair Category:The Simpsons characters